All Shook Up

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Well, I wanted to make my daughter's last day of summer vacation memorable, but a 5.8 magnitude earthquake is not what I had in mind! I thought a nice day of pleasant mall hopping, some Mommy/Daughter bonding, and some frivolous money spending would be a good way to wrap up the summer. 

So there we were, in the food court, scarfing down Arby's chicken sandwiches when the floor started to shake. My daughter immediately assumed that an obese person was walking too close to our table (a fair assumption here in Southern MD and at a mall food court), but when she looked, no one was near us. The shaking grew stronger, and the overhead signs started swinging back and forth. People began to frantically grab their cell phones, but to no avail. Service was totally disrupted. Then, the realization that here, in Maryland, we were having an actual earthquake started to penetrate the consciousness of the mall masses. People began to panic and dash for the door. I stood up, looked at my daughter in this moment of chaos, and she said to me these words that I will always remember; "I'm not going anywhere until I finish my curly fries." And so it was. We stayed. We ate. We survived the Great Earthquake of 2011.